NGO awards scholarships to 100 indigent youths in Ibadan

By Olatunde Ajayi

An NGO, Human of Substance Empowerment Initiative (HOSEI), has awarded scholarships to no fewer than 100 indigent youths and victims of domestic violence in Ibadan.

The organisation, through its support mentorship unit, announced the names of the beneficiaries during its 10th anniversary in Ibadan on Sunday.

The HOSEI President, Ms Abiade Abiola, while presenting the scholarships, said that the current set of youths would be 10th to benefit from the initiative.

According to her, the new beneficiaries will be trained on photography, graphics designs, tailoring, baking, hair dressing and other skills of their choices free of charge.

“We have partnerships with standard organisations that teach our beneficiaries these skills.

“We also follow up the skill acquisition scheme with different mentorship and mentoring programmes.

“During the six months scholarship, they will be exposed to leadership skills through regular lectures, workshops, conferences and seminars,” she said.

Abiola said that the NGO had supported the first nine sets of beneficiaries with start-up kits and financial assistance after their graduation.

“We always watch their level of continuous seriousness and commitment and support as many as those who wish to further their education to tertiary institutions.

“We don’t want these youths, who are the future leaders of our nation, to succumb to the allure of prostitution and crime due to the economic situation of the country,” she said.

Earlier in his opening remarks, a former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Akinlolu Olujinmi, reiterated that a lot still needed to be done on youths’ mentorship in Nigeria.

Olujinmi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), noted that many youths, who were called leaders of tomorrow, had today dipped their hands in vices, such as cultism, drug abuse, inordinate ambition for wealth and all manners of evils.

He urged the parents and guardians to rise up to the challenges of nurturing worthy future leaders for the country.

“We must let them realise that there is dignity in labour and while we want to make them comfortable, we should do it in moderation.

“It is important for us to change our tactics of caring; we must be close to them, engage them always and let them know that money it is not everything that money does,” Olujinmi said.

One of the second set of beneficiaries, Mr Courage Afemije, said that his foundation and success in marketing industry began at HOSEI while he was given a scholarship to learn graphic design.

Another beneficiary, Esther Olaleye, said being a beneficiary of HOSEI to learn beads and jewelry making started a great journey in her life.

She stated that HOSEI also opened the door of scholarship for him to obtain tertiary education.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the occasion also featured presentation of awards to the beneficiaries’ trainers and mentors.(NAN)

Edited by AbdulFatai Beki and ‘Wale Sadeeq